This year, I am thankful for family and friends near and far; the community we’ve found through blogging, good health and the good food that will be on the table today . . . etc.
But most of all, I’m thankful that after a year and a half on two wheels, I’ve yet to inspire a highway art installment like this one.
Bike art near Guntersville, Alabama
How about you, friends? And what do you think of this installment? Humorous, or hostile, given that it’s located next to a highway?
And to our American readers — how are you celebrating Thankgiving? I’m spending it away from my family for just the second time in 29 years (yikes). Planned to bring a cake to a friend’s, but a pan extraction incident means I’m making cake balls instead. Something tells me my hosts won’t complain.
I was riding home from work today and saw this beautiful leafy scene. My sister and I loved to rake up piles of leaves and jump in them as kids. In honor of playing with leaves, I stopped and had a little too much fun with my camera’s self-timer. I was way too into my leaf-playing to care whether passersby thought I was insane.
Yesterday, in between thrift store visits, we stopped for lunch at the Earwax Café, where the food was much more delicious than the name might suggest.
Public bathrooms aren’t usually the best photo venues, but I couldn’t resist documenting this piece of graffiti. If you’re going to deface a wall, you might as well say something worth saying. Just one of the reasons I love visiting Chicago!
The last time I visited your fair city, there was quite the uproar about parking meters being removed. “Where,” the cyclists fumed, “will we park our bikes?”
As a cyclist in a city without much bike parking, and few parking meters, I have had to make do many a time with the nearest solid (and sometimes not-so-solid) object. So I present to you a gallery of inspiration for your parking-meter-less future. Good luck!
Defunct public phone. Probably more rare than parking meters!
Happy Saturday! While we prepare for our ride, enjoy this snapshot of a blogger hard at work, muses alongside. A soundtrack of purrs can be very inspiring.
Good news first: you work! you really work. Better than the old damp paper-towel routine. Better than a washcloth and soap (no need to rinse).
You’re reuseable.
You do your best to make your packaging environmentally friendly.
You’re convenient.
You included a nice little handwritten note on my order slip.
Thank you for all of those things.
But do you have to smell like a hippie eating a cough drop? Herbal, I can live with, but smelling like the herb, I cannot. Can we pretty please have the cleansing and soothing properties of eucalyptus and tea tree with a little less of the scent? Because on all but the hottest days, I find myself opting for the slight BO/Chanel Chance combo instead.
There wasn’t enough time for me to scare up a bike between my arrival in Chicago and the start of the Active Trans mixer. I thought I was OK taking the El, until I met the gorgeous Betty Foy and bike withdrawal hit hard.
one bike, two women
Apparently Dottie’s support of a bike-share program only goes so far! Can’t say I blame her.
As I’ve mentioned before, Vanderbilt’s campus is THE place to go to spot bikes in Nashville. (A hot second: the Belmont Blvd. bike rack.) Unfortunately Le Peug was not with me when I spotted this guy:
Le Peug's long-lost relative?
Nice to see another Peugeot on the road — or, well, on the rail, anyway.
Somehow I’d missed seeing this movie until last year—this is one of my favorite scenes. It’s amazing how effortless the puppeteers make this look. If Kermit were a regular bike rider, his legs would have been even more drool-worthy for Charles Durning and his customers. And then there’s the bike’s geometry, which looks a little off. Perhaps Schwinn designed a special “frog” model?
One of the best things about traveling is seeing how the place you’re visiting is different from your home. I’ve traveled widely in Europe and Russia was probably the most different place I’ve been yet. To sum it up in one sentence: Russia is not for wimps.
There didn’t seem to be many rules there at all, and many of the public health things we now take for granted—safe and stable stairways, pedestrian crossings, lanes on the interstates, no holes in sidewalks smoking bans—do not exist. Not even medicines cater to the weak—check out the non-coated tablets.
Sensitive stomach? Too bad!
You all probably know by now that I really enjoy taking pictures of oddball things. Here are a few more images from weird and wonderful Russia:
Forget gold — apparently, the universal currency in the South is guns. To each their own, but I think I’d rather have four bikes, even rusty ones . . .
Warning: this is a total Friday post, with gratuitous cuteness and only a minimal connection to bikes. My next post will be all Batavus, so enjoy the break. :)
I got to see one of my favorite babies on Sunday night. His mom, Ashley, is one of my best friends and put up with me for three whole years while we were in college, so it’s always a treat to catch up with her and her family. Rowan was looking adorable as always, and I got a kick out of his little outfit — Ash knew I’d appreciate it! Anyone have a guess as to what kind of bike Pooh is riding on Rowan’s onesie?
You start driving your bike commute route instead of your car commute route (luckily I realized what I was doing before I got to the crosswalk portion of my route).
You try to open your car door with your U-Lock key.
After a few days of not driving, you can’t remember where your car is parked.
The chief criteria for a new hairstyle is that it be helmet-proof.
I’m sure you all have more to add…
03.27.09
ETA a few of my faves from the comments so far:
When you bend when driving around a curve (although my driving teacher told me that I should try to avoid that years ago ) —anna
When you need to drive to work one day for whatever reason, leave the office at the end of that day and freak-out because your bicycle isn’t at the bike rack. —dadabean [T's note: I have totally done this.]
When people come in your office and say “Where’s your bike?” if it’s not there. —Courtney
You ‘hesitate’ at red lights and then realize you are in a car and MUST stop. —Elisa M.
And any bike/motorcycle riders will probably appreciate Tinker’s comment…maybe everyone should just go and read them all.
Okay, maybe “The Hog” is not the nicest nickname for a full-figured bike like Oma. But she takes it as the compliment it’s intended to be. I only call her The Hog sometimes, particularly when (as in this picture, though you can’t really see) I ride her wearing a black leather jacket, black leather gloves, jeans, tall black boots, and serious looking black helmet. I’m sure I intimidate all the SUVs on the road! And everyone at my destination can assume that my “bike” is a motorcyle – fine with me. You know those shirts that say “This Is What A Feminist Looks Like”? I need one that says the same for “Cyclist.” :)
I saw this on EcoVelo and had to make one of my own. Fun procrastination when I’m supposed to be working! You can make your own here, thanks to the ever-cool Paste Magazine.
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As two girls who practice city cycling with style and think you can too, we started this blog to share our stories, learn more about cycling and encourage others to rediscover the fun of riding a bike. All opinions and reviews are our own, and we are not paid to provide them. Check the "About us" page for more details.
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